Derek Fisher's post-Game 5 NBA Finals interview

Q. Talk about the maturation process for Kobe Bryant. You've been with him from draft day probably. Has he really become a leader? Phil was talking earlier about now people are following him as opposed to in the past. What did you see?

DEREK FISHER: He's grown. He's grown up. He's doing everything that we could ever ask him to do in terms of leading the team and performance on the court, during the games, in practice, and like you stated, trying to be the type of guy that guys will follow as opposed to just dominating performances by himself and then expecting everyone to catch up to him. He's really done an unbelievable job getting everybody to believe and buy into what we were trying to do this year.

Last year we almost did it, but we had to wait a long year. We're back here now, and Kobe is at the top of the list of all people that deserves a lot of the credit for what's going on right now.

Q. What's the biggest difference between last year's team and this year's team?

DEREK FISHER: I think last year's experiences helped us a lot this year, the change in our team last season with the trade to get Trevor Ariza, the trade to get Pau Gasol, those are things that happened during the season, and even though we had a lot of success, obviously making it to The Finals, I don't know if we really knew who we were. Even though we were in The Finals against the Celtics, I don't know, when we were put in a position where we had to dig deep, find out who you are and what you're made of, I don't know if we knew each other that way. From training camp this year, to experience every practice, every bus ride, every plane ride with the same group, I think that really separated us from last season's team to this year's team.

Q. Tell us about your faith, how it's kept you strong when you were seemingly struggling in the beginning, and then to see these beautiful rainbow three pointers just drop through the net.

DEREK FISHER: Yeah, a lot of guys in our league are guys that are made strong and are faithful guys, regardless of what their religious beliefs are. There are a lot of guys in our league that don't necessarily talk about it, don't speak of it, but are really strong in their faith. That's how a lot of us got here and how we've stayed here is because we've always believed in a higher power and something that was stronger than us that has allowed us to be successful in the position that we're in, to provide for our families. When we've all gone through the individual struggles, Lamar sitting up here, to lose a child, that's struggle. I guarantee you it's because of his faith, something higher than him, something stronger than him that has allowed him to continue to believe that life is going to be okay.

The same goes for me. When things are down, things are bad, there has to be something that you look to to want to believe that it's going to be better tomorrow. For me that's always been my faith. That's the way I was raised. I believe in the Lord, and I don't necessarily throw it out there all the time, but it's a big part of my life.

Q. Now that the battle is over, how great is the shout that is on the inside of you, the jubilation?

DEREK FISHER: Hard to put into words because it's a team sport, so as great as you feel individually, and you want to shout to the world about how you feel and what you think and what you did, it's really about the accomplishments of this entire team, especially on a night like tonight. The focus belongs on the whole group. It's great to see that box not just be Kobe or not just be Phil on the front, to have our entire team on the front of that box. That's what this has been all about all year.

Q. Kobe talked about it, Pau and Lamar, the closeness of this team. Talk about where this championship ranks for you also.

DEREK FISHER: Yeah, whatever you want to call it, camaraderie, chemistry, closeness, guys that are just enjoying being around each other, playing with each other, that's a big part of what we've done. It was a long season to get back to this point to try and be patient enough to wait to have this opportunity to be champions again. A lot of it was because of how close we were as a group, and I think losing in The Finals last year is what ultimately kind of brought us really close together because we all were in that boat together.

Q. Was this group closer than your other championship teams?

DEREK FISHER: Yeah, I think we were closer because this team is closer because of the combination of guys in terms of their ages and where they are in their careers at this point. Teams that we were on before with guys like Brian Shaw and Robert Horry and Rick Fox and A.C. Green and Glen Rice, you're talking about guys that were 30, married, families, there was no real need for guys to be 20 something and hanging out and going to dinner together. That's not what middle aged guys do. We don't kick it like that, you know?

You know, with these guys, everybody being early to mid 20s, guys that are still trying to make their spot in this league, earn their contract situation, there was a willingness to learn and be around me, to be around Kobe, to be around other people that they could learn from, listen to. It's just a special group. I mean, I think that's why you saw the emotion that you saw tonight. We didn't act like we expected this to happen. I mean, we really celebrated like we didn't know this was coming. It's great. It's great.

Q. Take us back to after you guys lost in Boston, getting on the bus. What happened on the bus on the way out of the Garden and just the plane ride? What was going through you guys' minds as things progressively got worse as the night went on?

DEREK FISHER: Yeah, in combination with the emotions obviously of losing in The Finals and having our season be over the way it was, to then leave that arena after really having a tough time in the locker room, get on the bus and the fans on the streets were going crazy, as most cities do. A lot of people approached the bus, throwing rocks at the bus, shaking the bus. At one point we thought a couple windows were going to crack. I mean, it was rough.

We were fortunate to get out of that without obviously anybody being injured on our side, but also there wasn't anybody that was injured by the bus or that got hit or anything, and that's the most important part.

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